Reveling in Silence
by fiendofspace
Summary: Just a few hours ago you were hating the existence of your useless travel-partner, Meenah. Now, she's asleep on your shoulder. Request from tumblr user yolomid.


Your name is Vriska Serket and you're sitting in your hotel room on what, a few hours ago, you would have considered to be one of the worst days of your life. Oh, how quickly things change. For the past half-hour or so, you've been on the couch in front of the television with Meenah snuggled into you. She's asleep again, even though she slept in the car all morning. You can't help but find this whole situation nice, despite the rocky start that the two of you began on. A few hours in the past, you wouldn't have believed this was even a remote possibility as to how your relationship would progress over the course of the day.

* * *

_Four hours earlier_

You've been driving for an entire day, and you're exhausted - no thanks to your useless travel partner, of course, who had been too lazy to get her license and, likewise, has done nothing but listen to her iPod and sleep since the beginning of the trip.

You don't even know how you got stuck with Meenah in the first place. She was a total city girl, decked out in black and pink punk garb and rings, and you had been hesitant to even be near her at first. Now that you think about it, she isn't that bad; she could be talking your ear off or blasting music through the radio, but she just kinda... sits there. You guess it would be worse. After all, you only have to deal with her for one more day before you get to the college that you're both attending.

That's how you met her: a mutual acquaintance had set the two of you up since Meenah needed a ride and was offering to pay half of the gas money in exchange. As much as you disliked taking on an extra passenger, you were near flat broke and there was no way you'd make the trip on your bank alone.

To make an awkward situation even worse, you now have an even larger problem to face. A while earlier, you'd begun to hear strange noises from the front of your car. You'd promised yourself that you would stop at the next service station; however, no stations had presented themselves. You'd only stopped when you started seeing steam coming out of the car's hood in wisps.

Now you're standing in knee-deep snow on the side of the road with your hands coated in motor grease. You've prodded around the mechanisms under the hood; you pride yourself on the fact that you know a thing or two about mechanics, but nothing you've tried has worked. Shivering slightly, you shut the hood and wipe your grimy hands on your jacket before sitting back in your seat. Meenah's fast asleep, her phone still in her hands. You wince as you turn the key in the ignition and hear the grinding sound that the motor makes. Slowly, you signal and pull out into the closest lane of the highway.

The car refuses to go over thirty miles per hour. You keep an eye out for other drivers as a heavy snow begins to fall, but you see no other cars on the freeway.

There's a sign at the side of the road that says that the next town is only three miles away. It sounds like the engine's in a bad status, but you think that it can handle a few more miles. Sure enough, ten minutes later you pull up to a small service station in a tiny little town. You get out of the car and go into the station to talk with the mechanic. After a heated conversation about what the problem was and how much it would cost to fix it, you walk back to your car through the snow in a much worse mood than you had been in before.

You open the passenger door. "Meenah," you grumble, kicking her awake.

She turns away from you and puts her arm over her face, "No."

"Get up, loser, we're getting out of the car." You go to the trunk and pull out the two overnight bags.

"How about you shut the damn door," she grumbles back.

You shut the trunk and toss Meenah her bag. On a second thought, you scoop up a handful of snow and chuck that at her as well.

She splutters, sitting straight up and sloughing the snow off of her face, muttering darkly. "Fine, I'm up! God..."

"The guy in the station told me there's a hotel down the road from here," you tell her, turning and walking in the direction of the hotel without a backwards glance.

To put it nicely, the hotel is a complete dive. It's small and untidy, but it's cheap and it's the only place around. The first thing Meenah does after you check in and go up to your room is pick up the phone with the intention of calling in for room service.

"Do you really think that we have enough money to order room service?" you ask her, unpacking your bag into the dresser.

"To hell with that, Vriska, I'm hungry," she pouts.

You purse your lips but say nothing. "Use your own money."

She ignores you, speaking her order into the receiver. A few minutes later, her food arrives. She's ordered some sort of hot sandwich and, although you hate to admit it, it smells delicious.

Meenah takes the knife that came with the sandwich and cuts it in half down the middle. "Portabella mushroom with provolone," she tells you, handing one half of the sandwich to you.

"Heh. Thanks." You thought that it would take more convincing to score some food from her. Maybe she just didn't eat very much?

You soon saw that this was not the case. In the time that it took you to eat your half of the sandwich, Meenah has completed her half as well as the side of fries and salad. Honestly, you'd never seen someone eat so fast. You always multitasked while eating, so meals were a timely ordeal. It certainly was strange. She must have a fast metabolism.

Once the two of you finish your food, you sit down on the couch.

"I'm tired," said Meenah immediately.

"You slept all morning, idiot," you respond. "You honestly don't need any more sleep."

"I sleep more than any other being in the planet."

"I'll believe that," you respond snarkily, pulling your freshmans handbook out of your bag and beginning to read.

"Plus, I just ate. I always sleep after I eat."

You don't take your eyes off of the handbook. "Well you're just full of surprises."

A few minutes pass by in silence.

"I'm thirsty," says Meenah finally.

You raise your eyebrows at her over the top of your handbook.

"What?" she asks.

You contemplate it a moment. You're going to be spending another full day with her tomorrow, and she'll be the only other person you know at the college once you get there. Plus, she was all sorts of attractive. Not that it mattered, of course. But it did make you think. "I'll order something for us," you say. "My treat."

Meenah sits back in the couch and turns on the television, looking pleased with herself. You call the front desk, and a few minutes later a bellhop shows up at the door with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

You bring them over to Meenah and set one of them in front of her on the coffee table. You then retake your seat next to her. For the next few minutes, neither of you say anything. Meenah has found some sort of nature documentary with calming scenery and music, and you both stare transfixed at the screen while you sip your hot chocolates.

"Thanks," says Meenah quietly after a while.

"No problem," you respond.

She sets her empty mug on the coffee table, then glances at you. After a moment of thought, she cautiously rests her head on your shoulder. You lean back and angle yourself slightly to offer her a more comfortable space, which she graciously accepts.

You quietly sip your hot chocolate as you feel Meenah's head slowly get heavier and heavier against your chest as she becomes more encumbered in the clutches of sleep. Her breathing becomes deep and even, and you can feel her eyelashes fluttering slightly against the front of your shirt.

You set down your now-empty hot chocolate mug and remove Meenah's pink glasses, setting both on the coffee table in front of you. Meenah stirs slightly as you reach over her to grab the remote control from the other side of the couch. You wait until she settles once again before turning off the television and plunging the room into darkness.

There's no sound in the room other than that of Meenah's breathing. Through the thin curtains over the dark window, you can see that snow has once again started to silently fall. Earlier it was a total pain to deal with - but now, sitting on the couch curled up with Meenah, there's a certain beauty to it that you hadn't noticed before. For a moment, you contemplate what to do next. There's a bed in the room conjoined to the living room that you are in right now. You know that you could carry her to the bed; you don't mind sleeping on the couch.

Or you could stay on the couch, the two of you, together.

You smile slightly to yourself. That's the best idea you've heard all day. The air is so cold, and she's so warm - you drape your arm over her shoulder and, though she is still asleep, Meenah subconsciously wraps her arms around your waist.

Thinking back, you don't know how things got to this point. The two of you didn't hardly talk, and when you did, it was mainly sarcasm and insults.

But you're not complaining. Far from it.

* * *

**Thank you once again for reading my stories! You all are magnificent. **

**Special thanks to tumblr user yolomid for requesting flushed Vriska/Meenah. **

**Reviews are always welcome, they make my day that much brighter! **

**- fiendofspace**


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